Pseudo sticky
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. Ansel Adams /p/seudo sticky * A draft sticky proposal for the 4chan /p/hotography board - http://4chan.org/p/ * Board specific etiquette and general photographic information. --Betlog !!Me2iIexFVez (talk) 06:36, 26 February 2012 (UTC) General Etiquette Resize your images Resize and/or compress your images. * TL;DR: Your image almost never needs to be full pixel size, and even a little bit of jpg compression makes it's filesize significantly smaller. Show us that you aren't a total noob by resizing and/or compressing it to a size appropriate to it's detail. * Uncompressed files direct from your camera are unnecessarily large. Perhaps not in terms of pixel dimensions, but almost always as excessive filesizes. * To maximize the number of views and feedback your image gets, put at least a minimum of effort into ensuring that it is a reasonable file size. * About 1000px on their longest side and/or less than ~1Mb are reasonable sizes. * Panoramas are inherently large, but ~1000px on their shortest side, and appropriate jpg compression may be an acceptable compromise. * If you need to post high resolution for a specific reason then do so. But there are very few reasons not to compress it a little first. * It is always best to edit images with software locally on your computer, but sites exist to do this if you are completely clueless, away from tools, or in a hurry. *: http://www.photosize.com/ PNG bad. JPG good Learn why PNG is not an appropriate format for the posting of photographs. : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics#Comparison_to_JPEG How To Contribute * As /p/ is an Image Board, your own photographs should be included as often as possible. That is why we are here: to see photographs. : Photographs > words. : If you post text, consider accompanying it with a reasonably sized relevant photograph. : Even if it's not relevant, stating (image not related) will avoid confusion as to the images' purpose. * Try to be objective when giving or receiving C&C (Comment & Criticism). : Skill levels of /p/ users occupy the full spectrum from first-time user through famous retired professionals. Prolific spray-and-pray through to days of planning for one image. Users of cameras through to collectors of equipment. Camera-phone through to large format photographers. : If you comment on a photo, even negatively, try to be constructive, remain calm, and accept that your opinion may not be shared by others. : While your ability to enjoy and critique others' work is of no relation to your own abilities as a photographer, your opinion is of greater validity if you actually share some experience with, and appreciation for the kind of work you are critiquing. : TL:DR; You sound like less of an idiot when you have some actual experience with what you are talking about. *Photography is a highly subjective media: what one person hates another may love. : /p/ is often the polar opposite of image boards where only positive comment is posted. : In /p/ the Haters are far more likely to post than those who like your work/photo. They may do so several times in an attempt to artificially amplify their position, crush your photographic resolve, or troll you into pointless debate. : You should not feel compelled to debate everything with everybody. : Understand what Cognitive Dissonance is and how it may be influencing your objectivity, or the objectivity of others. : Understand that some forms of debate are undesirable when undertaken competitively, but conversely are excellent general discussion when participants respect the opinions of others. :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eristic Check before posting * Check all 16 pages of the board before creating any thread that asks a question or to pimp your flickr/tumblr/portfolio/500px/etc : wat camera? | wat lens? | wat lighting? | wat inspiration? | how do i shot wedding? | how do i go pro? | etc * Frequent bumps of threads like this that have little or no contribution in the form of more photographs and relevant discussion, are not encouraged. : However: :: Bumping a worthy photograph thread to save it from expiring is generally acceptable. :: Posting an image/link to a photographically interesting site is ok if it's not just self promotion. :: If you want people to C&C on your flickr/tumblr/portfolio/500px/etc then you should post a number of photos from them in /p/. :: Simply posting an external link and saying 'look' is counterproductive. :: Posting a selection of images is good. EXIF or not * Exif data. : Generally /p/ prefers to see how the image was produced, so exif data is desirable. : Minimal useful data: Exposure time, Aperture, Sensitivity, EV, Focal length, Camera mode. : Some users are more interested in the exif than the photograph, so removing all or some exif data may be advantageous. : You may also find it useful to remove exif data to prevent disclosing personal information or GPS position. : Become familiar with what your camera's exif data includes before posting an image. : There are many browser plugins and stand-alone applications for managing exif data. :: http://www.google.com/search?q=exif+data :: http://regex.info/exif.cgi lrn2 /p/ * Learn how to delete your posts. : http://www.4chan.org/faq#delete * Read the board specific rules while you are there: : http://www.4chan.org/rules#p * The 4chan extension can be used to trivially ignore or report threads, and may improve your viewing experience. : http://www.4chan.org/tools * Some thread archives exist, and can also be created for suitably awesome threads. : http://chanarchive.org/requests Said in /p/ run Anonymous 03/24/12(Sat)20:38 No.1565851 Welcome to /p/, please leave immediately. The native creatures to this forum will harass you no matter what you do. Go become a great photographer by reading up on how light and cameras work, learn the correlation of Shutter Speed, Aperture, and Iso;, learn to compose your shot so that it's pleasing to the eye, and never stop snapping photos. Staying here will only ruin you and your life. But if you choose to stay, please resize your photos to 1000px on the longest side. The creatures here complain about bandwidth. Let the photos come to you Anonymous 04/11/12(Wed)23:54 No.1585830 "Let the photos come to you. By that, I mean just take your camera with you when you go out and only use it when you feel compelled to take a photo, to freeze a memory or a view that you love, that you want to have forever. Every amateur goes out â€˜lookingâ€™ for photos, which is why we get so many flower macro photos, or photos of things laying around the house." nitpick I feel like this is a gray area here. On one hand, in the situation he put you in (basically calling you out) you can't win. Even if you're a really great photographer he will nitpick the shit out of you to make himself feel better. On the other hand, he has a point. While anyone is able to give critique here, not everyone's critique will be relevant to the photographer's interests. Most of the people that post here are not good photographers, and even the ones that are like to shoot vastly different things. For instance, If you're a documentary photographer and your work isn't very technical in nature, but more artistic and focused on portraying intangible subjects to the discerning viewer, your average /p/ citizen will only be able to see the technical aspects of your image and will discount your work as pointless snapshots. If you're a landscape photographer, you will give much more credence to the opinions of other landscape photographers. If I was a large format landscape photographer and I got positive advice from a similarly-experienced shooter and negative advice from someone who spends all their time shooting cat and flower pics with a rebel, it would be in my best interest to discount the advice from the latter. If a photographer were to follow every piece of 'advice' given to them in a critique thread here, their work would end up being a pile of generic, watered-down dog crap. Being selective with whose opinions you take to heart is an important aspect of the critiquing process. books People will probably point you to books, webpages and videos and what not, no, you are a photographer, not a librarian. Set the camera to M and use the built in light meter. Read the instruction manual for the camera. Be aware of your shutter seed which, after focus, will probably be what ruins your pictures 99% of the time, if you have properly exposed the picture. If you really want to read books other than the manual, get photo books, not instructional ones that blind you with figuring out this and or that, making you forget content. Proficiency at using the camera will exponentially grow with the number of frames you shoot. tl:dr: Take pictures, evolve, learn, don't emulate some strobist or writer. boke Boke - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh The term comes from the Japanese word boke (æšˆã‘ or ãƒœã‚±), which means "blur" or "haze" The English spelling bokeh was popularized in 1997 in Photo Techniques magazine, when Mike Johnston, the editor at the time, commissioned three papers on the topic for the March/April 1997 issue; he altered the spelling to suggest the correct pronunciation to (AMERICAN) English speakers. Pronounciation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English bokeh /bÉ’kÉ›/ b buy, cab É’ lot, pod, song, doll k sky, crack É› dress, bed, fell, men light area Take a 50mm lens With a maximum aperture of f/1.4 50mm / 1.4 = 35.714mm The f-number describes the diameter of the aperture. We can then use the Pi*r^2 rule to calculate the area of the aperture. 3.1416*17.85mm^2 = ~1002mm^2 do the same calculations for f/2 and we end up with ~490,87mm^2 Stopping down one f-stop halved the area of the aperture and as such halved the incoming light, in order to compensate you would have to expose for twice as long of double the sensitivity. tips When shooting handheld make sure your shutter speed is atleast the same as the focal lenght to avoid blur. For example on 50mm use shutter speed of atleast 1/50 Allways shoot in RAW and learn how to edit raw pictures. Just trust me on this one. Avoid built in flash. Do NOT use image stabilization when shooting from a tripod. Allways use the lowest ISO when shooting from a tripod unless you need a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. When shooting distant, hard-to-focus-on objects such as stars, set the focus manyally to inifinity. (âˆž symbol) Avoid full auto modes. Play with the manual ones to learn how your camera works. Lower aperture NUMBER lets more light to the sensor, thus making your pictures brighter. Generally higer aperture NUMBER gives you sharper images. Higer ISO makes sensor more sensitive for light but also increases noise. Try use as low ISO as possible. Increase it only when necessary Doubling the ISO reading allows you to decrease the shutter speed by half without changing the brightness of the photo. For example: ISO 100 and shutter speed of 1/20 gives you same results as ISO 200 1/10 Decreasing aperture NUMBER by one stop allows you to increase shutter speed by one stop without changing the brightness of your photo. Heres some basic info I wrote because I was bored. I could just go on and on with this list but I listed most of the main things here, I think.. nude tips 5hoe !idbqkIQrjY 02/16/12(Thu)03:34 No.1525677 Before you shoot nudes, make sure you are comfortable shooting someone fully dressed first. You should be confident in your abilities to light skin without the photo looking like shit. Only THEN should you even consider shooting MORE skin (i.e. nudes). 1. You have to be comfortable or she won't be. 2. You have to focus on taking the picture - don't get all pumped up that you're getting a girl naked. You're supposed to be working. 3. Don't try and sneak inappropriate shots - a LOT of nude models complain about creeper-photographers doing this. In other words, your model should know what you're shooting while you're shooting it. 4. Don't try anything too dramatic or edgy for your first go around. Try and take a passable picture before you try and revolutionize "nude art." 5. Don't let your model bend or contort in a way that makes her look pudgy, wrinkled, flabby, etc. 6. Don't let your model make "sexy faces" because she'll end up looking dumb. 7. Make damn sure you can photoshop like a boss. Cleaning up skin is even more important when you're shooting nudes. 8. Be conscious of your light - does it make her abs look flat, does it make her collar bones glisten, does it make her ass look pleasant, etc. 9. Don't shoot in a bed or use any sort of fabric for a backdrop - it just looks like sleazy porn if you do. 10. Find nude photography you like and try to emulate it - don't use porn unless it's something like HEGRE or MET - and even then you're getting off track. sensor dirty Here's some serious advice: 1. I made the same mistake as you last year using microfiber cleaning cloth on a paddle. The sensor seemed "fine" until some stopped down F/11 and beyond shots showed scratches on the lowpass filter covering the sensor. Some $200+ at canon factory repair and I have a new low-pass filter. 2. I recommend you stop down a picture of the sky and make sure you're completely fucked at this point. When I wiped my sensor with a cloth, stopped down pictures of the wall, desk, ceiling, whatever seemed fine. you can't be sure unless you use a pure light source. If you insist on DIY, get these swabs: http://opteka.com/ssc20.aspx follow the instructions and they will not let you down. (instructions: 1. wipe across once while bending the paddle all the way into the corner. 2. wipe back in the opposite direction. 3. THROW THE PADDLE AWAY. 2a If you're eccentric or feel you'll have dust on the back edge from step 1, skip step 2 and religiously proceed to step three. Whatever you do, do NOT get the "sensor swabs" pre-moistened with eclipse solution (set of 3 or 4 in a red/blue box.) They have linty cloth paddles that put frustrating amounts of lint in the sensor corners and you'll be inclined to reuse them just to pick up the specks you added. In fact, these POS swabs ultimately drove me to improvise no thanks to their uselessness. tl;dr. have a pro do it or learn to do it at risk of it costing you more. Rule of 600 Hafenmeister !l582Vln9EE 02/19/12(Sun)15:08 No.1529302 >>1529244 The best way to find out the best exposure time for your set up is this formular: 600 / (your current focal length) = exposure time in seconds at maximum open aperture and ISO 100 So if you're using a 50mm f/1.4 the calculation would be: 600/50=12sec exposure at f/1.4 ISO 100 To find the nearest field of stars try the opensource program called Stellarium. Remember, crop users, that equation figures on the 35mm equivalent focal length. dpi If your's photo width is 4400 you should be able to print at 200dpi (quite reasonable quality for big prints) up to 55cm (22") wide. scanning old negs BJDrew !!LkyLqEm9G0v 02/19/12(Sun)12:11 No.1529173 special anti static negative cleaning solution and disposable wipes along with white lint free gloves does an amazing job prepping negs 1. Dust with bulb blower, both sides 2. Wipe with antistat cleaner 3. Let dry few seconds 4. Careful clean with cloth if needed 5. Blow off dust again and scan canikon Anonymous 02/24/12(Fri)16:19 No.1535364 >Are the Canon/Nikon ones that much better? No, they aren't. In fact, the kit lens on the Pentax is actually one of the better ones. The cheaper consumer lenses you will be buying are pretty much in the same boat regardless of brand. You got thrown a red herring, though a technically true one. pay attention to exact wording; >If you care about performance lens choice This is true. both canon and nikon have expensive professional level high performance lenses costing thousands, sometimes upwards of even $5000. pentax doesn't have them. at all. they don't try, they only market cameras to consumers, where canon and nikon have dual markets. see what i mean about red herring? So, as i am assuming you are a consumer buying consumer level lenses, professional lenses are largely if not entirely irrelevant. the answer for you as a consumer is that they are all pretty much the same, pentax even arguably having a slight edge. Also, you can use manual focus lenses as you have discovered, and also there are a lot more of them and they are cheaper. those were also world class lenses. if you get a canon you will be using pentax manual focus glass on them anyway, and nikon entry dslr's won't work with anyones manual focus glass, even nikons own. street pechi 02/27/12(Mon)21:38 No.1538828 I think street is very complex. You have to make photos of people, doing their everyday things, and capture their emotions, but you also have to make it aesthetically pleasing through composition, exposure, and all that shit. You need to include context on the photo, as well as the feelings of the people in your shot. If you take too much time framing your shot, you will miss the action, but if you snap away you might lose some vital information about the place. You have to be fast on capturing, but you also have to think about what you are capturing... Art, and documentary, a mix of both. Can you be an art? Can you be an documentary? Can you be both? Making photos of people walking on the street is not really street photography... and not all street needs to be black and white. lens or body A lot of people research camera bodies, then once they settle on one, they go and pick up whatever lenses they need that fit that body. There's nothing wrong with this per se, but I do the exact opposite. I heard this quote once, and it's very true: "The lenses are for the images, and the body is for the photographer." Since it's the lenses that end up dictating how your images will look, I research old lenses that I'd like to use, then once I find something that I fall in love with I pick up a body to use it with. Most bodies will cost under $100, and you can get some top-of-the-line-in-their-day bodies for around the $200 mark that will be a dream to use. This leaves you with $3-400 for lenses. You could spend that all on one lens a la a 50 1.2 or something, or you could spend most of it on one lens, then the little bit left over on some cheap lenses with complimentary focal lengths, like a 50 1.4 with a 28 2.8 and a 135 3.5. Or you could just buy all slow, cheap lenses, one for every focal length and have a shmorgasboard (sp?) of lenses to play with. And if you go with any pretty much system besides Canon FL/FD and Minolta MC/MD, you will be able to adapt the lens(es) you buy onto a Canon DSLR, so you get even more bang for your buck if you have one of those. go pro Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)22:52 No.1555936 Here's how I did it. Now, this was 20 years ago, when you didn't need a masters degree in optics to get a job with the networks (I did TV.) 1. Be a competent photographer/videographer 2. Go to third world country with moderate to low newsworthiness. 3. Hang out with photographers from BBC, CBC, Reuters. Call yourself freelance. Let them know you're looking for work. 4. Shoot some spec. photo essays about economic development or some shit. Don't try to do any hard investigative stuff. Just some coverage the wires might want to pick up. 5. Get paid a little something and keep on until somebody picks you up either full or part time. CONGRATULATIONS!! YOU ARE AN INTERNATIONAL PHOTOJOURNALIST. Sound too good to be true? Not really. Journalism has always been a place where a ne'er do well could do pretty good. Most guys are in it for the giggles, and they're almost all pretty decent and accepting. Have fun. And if you do start having a decent career, never, NEVER, let anyone convince you to give it up for a desk job. I sure regret it. go pro 2 Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)11:08 No.1555380 ReplyReply Sup /p/, so I want to become a photojournalist. Not just a photojournalist, but a photojournalist who actually is sent overseas to cover history. Doesn't have to be wars, but I am not completely averse to it. I am 20 years old, have a fairly good, technical knowledge and foreign experience in hobby-esque photojournalism. What should I do in order to become a photojournalist? How important is a portfolio? How important is academic training? Photojournalists, is there are any out there, report in. Share opinions, give advice to a newbie. >>1555383 >>Fair enough. To clarify a possible question: My dream is to become a photojournalist for a magazine, therefore do photo stories. tldr: The job you want doesn't exist anymore. I might be able to add some info on this, as I am an editor for a regional magazine. Arts, entertainment, lifestyle, so I'm assuming that I put together something that you envision that you could contribute to... So, my magazine is owned by a company that owns several magazines, newspapers, and other quarterly publications. So, we only have one dedicated PJ on staff, and when he retires, he won't be replaced. He has been shooting for oen of the newspapers for more than 20 years. Typically, when I run a story that has pictures that run with it, one of three things happens. Either, the writer that is writing the story also takes the photos, or I take the photos, or we get a freelancer (we call them stringers, because we pretty much use the same people) to do it, or the subject of the article has their own publicity photos that we use. Sometimes, if the publicity photos aren't good enough, or the writer doesn't deliver high enough quality photos, a stringer will be called in. In fact, lots of new bands get their band photos done by their friend, and those images aren't high enough quality for print, and I will just spring a shoot on them during the interview. If they have a press agent, they normally have good enough press images. Recently, a writer did a series of articles on the ski-season, and all the images came back underexposed and muddy, so we split the cost of sending an editorial photographer to shoot images with the public relations agency for one of the ski resorts that was featured. >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)01:30 No.1556061 >>1556057 >>Samefagging, field too long All this to say, maybe you should consider becoming an editorial photographer instead of a PJ, and you will end up with lots of the same jobs that PJs used to do, because while the newspapers and magazines have slowed down on covering these sorts of things, the PR flacks still want the images and are starting to pick up the tab. Check out the "stuck in customs" blog, because he is an embedded photographer, and he is currently doing what you want to do. This should also be relevant to your interests. http://zackarias.com/editorial-photography/anatomy-of-an-editorial-shoot-coca-cola-ceo-muhtar-kent/ animecon tips Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:22 No.1556004 Hey /p/ can you give me some tips for taking photos at an anime convention? I don't know, do I need to set my camera at auto? flash? some specific zoom? any help is appreciated. pechita 03/15/12(Thu)00:30 No.1556010 Ask your model to pose according to the character. Background is important, check that there are not distracting objects. On-camera Flash should be fine, just use diffuser. 80 to 135mm should be good focal length for portrait. 35mm for group or full body shots. I'm not familiar with the environment, but these suggestions for portraits should work. What camera are you going to be using? Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:43 No.1556017 With cons, you have three main approaches in terms of background: 1) stalk the floor and take photos of cosplayers you come across. your background will be random people and stalls. use a large aperture to render them less distracting. ask for permission, but other than that it's like street, so look at something like a 20-50mm range (full frame). 2) camp at a place with a suitably non-distracting background. pull people in to shoot. lenses, you can do whatever you want. Just don't get to far away or you'll lose the connection. 3) stalk the floor, look for cosplayers, then persuade them to come with you to a suitable background and take photos of them. The rationale behind each of the approaches: 1) "It's a con, not a photoshoot. I'm documenting this." 2 and 3) "It's a con and I don't get to go shooting much so I must make this into a mini photoshoot!" Both rationales are OK. The problem with 3), even though it's a hybrid approach, is that it's much slower, and it's likely the cosplayer will be intercepted by fans a number of times before you finally make it to your chosen location. Lighting: on-camera flash cuz you're going to be jostled around. bounce that shit. It don't matter if you're bouncing it off passing people's faces, just juice it up and go for it. or; 4) find a place you can swing permission to set up some lighting (usually stupidly easy), then watch the cosplayers come pouring over begging you to shoot them. it doesn't take much. a couple hundred in lighting gear will do. a couple tripods, a couple speedlights with remote triggers, and a couple cheap shoot-through and/or reflector umbrellas from ebay. add a cheap old non-ttl flash on a trigger pointed straight up, and maybe a reversible reflector for someone to hold and you are golden. i like the reflector because then someone gets to be an 'assistant'. people eat that shit right up. tl,dr; build it and they will come to you OiD !c4MhzmU2ao 03/15/12(Thu)01:11 No.1556045 Get details/full body shots, try and avoid closeups with wide angles. Set you camera on P if you don't have a clue. Else choose Aperture or Shutter priority. Listen to what >>1556010 and >>1556017 say. But most of all be happy and enjoy what you are doing. If you get bored do something else or you'll put zero effort into the pictures. Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)01:50 No.1556081 Not OP but thanks for the tips guys. I recently started bringing my camera to conventions and I think I found a good balance. I walk around with my camera and just take pictures as I come across good cosplays, just for documentation. I'm not really into photoshoots just because I'm not fully comfortable with my skills as a photographer yet to get into that. Especially with strangers at a conventions when most of them are awkward and annoying. I do shoot my girlfriends cosplays though. Anyway, I found that my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and an external flash w/ a lightsphere works fantastically. I use the lightsphere with the cloudy dome pointed towards my subject for just 1-2 people anywhere between 30-50mm and for groups I just pop the dome off, point it up and zoom out as wide as 17mm. Seems to cover pretty much everything very well. Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)19:45 No.1557746 >>1556004 Not OP, done some Con shooting. Will echo that 008 and 010 at the top give good advice. Mechanics: Make sure you have a fast lens on hand, 2.8 or faster. Hotel lighting sucks in terms of quantity, quality, and temperature. Expect 30-80mm full-frame range. Use manual mode if your camera acts dumb, program or aperture mode otherwise. Philosophies differ on flash or no flash. If you use flash, don't do direct undiffused flashes. Ceiling bounce, go off-camera with a cable or slave, and use a diffuser, like a gong 'lightglobe'. On the floor: You'll get four kinds of shots: snipes, walk-bys, already-happening photo ops, and direct inquiries. If you're not creepy, try "That' s a great costume, do you have time for a photo?" They get dressed up to show of their costume or their figure, so this'll get good results. HAVE SOME BASIC BUSINESS CARDS. Name, "Photographer", email, pn#, flickr/facebook/picassa/whatever. There WILL be people who you'll want to take to more controlled settings AND will be local to you. A simple business card also goes a long way for appearing more serious than you may actually be. If you promise prints (up to US$0.15 for a 4x6 online, with shipping), this helps them get in touch with you, but you should get their info, not vice versa. Which leads me to- Bring some index cards. They work as fill cards, for white balance, and for writing notes. If you take shots at an event, scribble down who did it. AFTERWARDS: These people aren't paying for your time, so don't waste too much time in PP. Post links to the galleries on the Con website/FB, as well as to those who performed. It's great traffic, and they'll be interested in how they look when doing their thing. Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)19:58 No.1557751 http://hcoregamer00photography.blogspot.com/search/label/cosplay%20photography Read this guy's posts on cosplay photography. READ'EM! :D printing Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:11 No.1557482 ReplyReply Guys I have a problem here regarding printing. I just got in photography some six months ago, I'm doing my pp in Lr3 and then maybe I use gimp (my trial Ps ended) for some things. Yesterday I went to print a couple of photos and what I found was than when they showed me the images in the lab they looked darker than in my computer and of course the print was darker too. Those were jpgs, when I edit RAW the things get worse. The exported jpg doesn't look like the image I see on Lr even in my own computer, BUT those print more like how I see them on Lr but darker. This is very confusing, Am I doing sometihing wrong? Is it my screen? Is it the lab's equippment? What can I do for prevent this to happen? Should I just give up and make all my images lighter guessing for the print? >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:26 No.1557492 Hold the lab print up to the same photo on your monitor. Adjust the settings on your monitor until it matches the print. That should take care of your problem from there on. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:28 No.1557493 >>1557482 monitor calibration >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:28 No.1557494 you need to get into CMYK vs. RGB. but seriously OP, your image just cracks me up and i don't know why. saved. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:29 No.1557497 Get a Datacolor Spyder. http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s4express.php >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:36 No.1557503 >>1557494 This. Monitor calibration won't do a thing (except make the colors on your monitor LOOK "right" to you, whether they really are or not.. Also, ask for a 5x7 proof and pay for it if you have to, it's worth it. I always get 5x7s of anything I'm going to print larger. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:38 No.1557505 >>1557494 Is is a good shot. I like the split. Cracked me up too. >> M 03/16/12(Fri)14:40 No.1557510 Not only that. Sometime the lab where you take the photo takes it through a fast postprocessing before printing it. I discovered that when I purposely over or underexposed the picture, it was all for nothing because they thought it needed to be fixed and did what they want. Since then I always make sure to ask them not to edit before printing and I have never had any more problems. Before spending tons in monitor calibrating tools check this with the lab, the problem may lay there. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:53 No.1557528 OP, *calibrating your monitor won't help you get good prints from the lab*! It will help you have a monitor with a nice color profile that will try to show you the colors you want to see. That's it. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)14:58 No.1557534 So >>1557492 *adjust my monitor to my prints, sounds logical. >>1557494 *CMYK instead of rgb. Do I do this at the very end? when exporting the jpg for printing? >>1557503 * A small trial print, I thought that too late I have already paid. >>1557510 I ask them to print the photos as they are, when they see you are not convinced then they ask if you want some changes. I will take all this in mind Could it be the way I export the images from Lr too? >> M 03/16/12(Fri)15:04 No.1557538 1. Calibrating your monitor is a good first step. Once you have your bearings and you work with a specific lab you will begin to know how to adjust things for that lab. 2. Get color proofs. Make corrects based on the color casts and curves that you see in your prints. I use a Kodax print filter kit. You can nab them off Ebay for cheap. 3. Do you know what paper the lab is using? This is one of the most important first steps. Ever paper will have it's own color profile. Use it. General points: - Switching from RBG to CYMK isn't necessary. Perhaps you will feel more comfortable in that color space but personally I find that there's hardly a reason to get out of RBG for color correction. - Monitors are backlit, prints are not. Keep that in mind when setting highlights and shadows. Nothing worse than a neg with great shadow detail that gets lost in the print. Regarding: >>1557510 I appreciate the flattery of using my sig. M. >> M 03/16/12(Fri)15:10 No.1557542 Regarding: >>1557534 I posted and then saw that you posted this. Let me make a few suggestions that you may feel free to use. 1. Firstly, I would highly suggest not adjusting your monitor to your prints. Your monitor should be properly calibrated. Adjust your prints to your monitor. Most places will do test prints for free. You will never have a good workflow if every time you go to print you are fucking with your monitor. This is standard. 2. CMYK I do not prefer over RGB. But a bigger issue, you should not be printing in JPG. Flatten your image and print it as a TIF. If you print in JPG you will compress your tones and end up with a hot mess. Take raw, process as TIF, flatten and print as tif. A photographer has no use for JPG other than uploading it to the web. 3. Test print test print test print. Seriously. M. >> MG 03/16/12(Fri)15:38 No.1557560 absolutely never ever calibrate your monitor to anything other than what is considered to be properly calibrated! when correcting an image you want it to look as good as it can/should, the only way to do that is to have your monitor properly calibrated. Once your monitor is properly calibrated, then go ahead and correct your image as best you can. Once your image has been properly corrected, then you want to load your printer and papers color profile loaded in photoshop using color profile preview. This will allow you to see as best possible what your image will look like on paper from that printer. **NOTE! When making corrections to your images, use ADJUSTMENT LAYERS, do not use the commands from the image drop down. Those are destructive changes which don't allow you to adjust them later. With adjustment layers, you can easily turn adjustments off, or re-tweak them without making any changes to the original image** With the color profile loaded, add new adjustment layers that will be the corrections for the printer. Adjust the image to look good with the color profile preview. Once adjusted, turn the color profile preview off, YOUR IMAGE WILL LOOK WRONG on your computer screen, this is ok. Save a copy of your photo as a "Tiff" file, name it something like, of Photo - Print.tiff. This is the highest quality compression you can get. On some printers you can send a PSD file to the printer, but there's no reason to, the file is way too big because it has data that the printer doesn't need, and the printer will get overloaded and print slow. do a test print, print a small portion of your photo, a part that represents the color range of your photo. Print that, based on what it looks like, make adjustments, or go ahead and print the full image. If it's too yellow, add blue, too green, add magenta, etc. Hope this helps. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)15:40 No.1557564 Make sure you're using the correct paper profile. Otherwise, you could do everything else and it will still look different than the monitor. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)15:48 No.1557567 Just watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhM_dStKinw Yes, a calibrated monitor is a good start. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)15:51 No.1557568 Your printer has a color profile, your paper has a color profile... How do I combine color profiles, if you get what I mean. e.g. HP printer profile ---> Fuji paper profile. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)15:55 No.1557573 >>1557560 >>the only way to do that is to have your monitor properly calibrated No way. Color balance numerically using the info panel. You can never color balance exact by eye. No one can. Get a color card! Can you count to 255? >> MG 03/16/12(Fri)16:05 No.1557582 >>1557573 ummm...don't wanna be a dick...but the best way to properly calibrate a monitor is using something like the i1 monitor calibrators http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1461 but calibrating through your systems color calibrator is a semi decent second option. Otherwise, film and video people have been color calibrating using colorbars for years. unless you were talking about color balancing an image numerically, you're definitely correct. I like to set an eye dropper point on my darkest spot, and an eye dropper point on my brightest point. add a levels adjustment layer, set my black and white points using my eye dropper points (it's even better if you've shot with a gray card and you can set your mid levels too. Then i adjust my RGB settings based on what my eyedropper readouts give me. For blacks, you want to adjust your RGBs to the lowest number, and for highlights you want to set your RGBs to the highest number. For mids, you would set your RGBs to the average number. After you're image is "technically" color corrected, then you can use curves and such to adjust the image the way you want it to look. >> M 03/16/12(Fri)16:12 No.1557590 I'm very happy that some of the more outlandish theories on color correcting and printing have been corrected by other members of /p/ as this conversation has progressed. Regarding: >>1557573 I am not sure where you have been trained or why you hold this beliefe, but this is incorrect. X-rite is going to be your best bet. M. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)16:13 No.1557592 >>1557582 That's ok. Calibrating a monitor is one thing, but I was referring to images. So I think we agree. Lots of ways, yours works too. I set a color marker on my high and low points (put a threshold layer on first to find them) and then go through each channel in the curves adjustment layer and balance to....well, if not workign with a card I put my high point at 245 (255 if I'm hitting a specular highlight but usually nothing is as white as 255) and 20-25 for my low point, sicne blocked up blacks look lousy and usually things aren't *that* black. Love this stuff but my work day is over and I'm hitting the weekend. Glad to hear someone else isn't focused on the monitor being the final say in what you're looking at. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)16:20 No.1557597 File: 1331929201.jpg-(520 KB, 1000x632) 520 KB >>1557590 Didn't I just say "get a card"? XRite is good but I use The Golden Thread by Image Science Associates. Of course they use XRite chips but there are some other calibration marks that help data available. Click here to show/hide. >> MG 03/16/12(Fri)16:20 No.1557600 >>1557592 that's in so many ways what i do. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)16:48 No.1557629 Thanks a lot, I see now how I was doing wrong a lot of things. Of course I'm just starting, but you give me a good guide for my future work. I have to go now, I will check the thread latter. Thanks >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)17:53 No.1557660 >>1557560 Good info. Thanks. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)18:25 No.1557680 http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)18:34 No.1557684 OP if you are printing from some high schoolers running a photo lab at walgreens its still gonna look like shit. Get some tracing paper and markers. Hold it up to the screen and voila! >> Mik 03/16/12(Fri)19:00 No.1557703 A lot of interesting information in this thread. >>1557538 I was not using your signature. I used to use it a long time ago. It's the first time I come back on /p/ after more than one year, and didn't know someone else used it in the mean time. Didn't want to pretend to be someone else. >> Anonymous 03/16/12(Fri)20:30 No.1557791 >>1557684 It is supossed to be a prolab, dedicated to photography and nothing else, not a costco nor something like that. I don't think the result is shit, It is just that darkness problem, I'm satisfied with everything else. Now I can see I can improve the way I print, so maybe I will be more satisfied. This thread is very helpful for me. thanks again everyone artists tale Anonymous 03/21/12(Wed)19:26 No.1562626 Be famous artist Show photographs in exhibitions in international museum shows Hate the art world because it's fake Move to a small country where nobody knows me Disown all acquaintances from the old country Live in peace and quiet in a nice house and talking shit on /p/ daily while making tons of money selling prints through my galleries. >true story angry little souls Anonymous 04/06/12(Fri)13:14 No.1579103 Do you people just sit there and watch other photographers and let every little thing they do silently add to the pile of rage within your angry little souls? Do you invent fake arguments in your head that you pretend to have with other people about your choice of gear because you're so insecure? I seriously don't get it. Why would you spend even the smallest fraction of a second worrying about what somebody else is doing if it doesn't affect you in any way? If someone is doing something wrong and it's bothering you for whatever reason, you'd rather sit there and judge them, then write about it later on /p/ than help them and offer advice? You people are pathetic. Sometimes I feel like you all just desperately want to be annoyed or something. I mean, I shoot a lot, and maybe I'm just not easily annoyed but no other photographer has ever bothered me in real life, whether through their actions or their conversation. The only time, literally only time anyone has ever said anything about my camera since I've started shooting is when I'd go out with my Leica M6. In the 2 years I owned that camera I had maybe 3 people mention something about it, and they all asked me if it was an M9. 2 of them were old men that were just curious and went on their way after a quick, friendly conversation, and the other was a smoking hot Asian chick working the counter at some art museum. I've been out shooting with a huge variety of gear, from $20 film rangefinders, $2000 film rangefinders, Rebels with kit lenses and $4000 FF digital with L glass setups. Never once has anyone ever come up to me and tried to start some sort of Canon vs Nikon, film vs digital, hipster vs pro, or prime vs zoom debate with me. To be honest, I'd love it if one of you did though, just so I could laugh in your face and read about it on /p/ later. it's the way you shoot it Anonymous 04/17/12(Tue)20:04 No.1593210 "It's not what you're shooting, it's the way you shoot it," - my professor. He explained that it doesn't really matter if you are taking a photo that everyone else has taken a picture of (e.g; grand canyon) because every picture is different. Maybe you catch the light coming in through the clouds, or you find an interesting perspective, or there is a massive storm in the background. So I guess my advice would be: Don't pass up on something that you like because you think that it's cliche, because your picture is still your picture. Category:Browse Category:Browse Category:Browse